Lotus Grill

Came here for lunch after being heebed out at Helens Asian Kitchen. This is next to the movie theater. Had great reviews so I thought... has to be better than the place with no heat and walls of opened shipping boxes. So I gave it a try. The person who took my order suggested noodles with my gen tso vs fried rice. Okay. Never had that. Lets go, bring that on. Waited a solid 5 minutes for my food. Not a very long time. Could hear it cooking and being assembled. As I waited I noticed the place was pretty clean. The noodles were a good suggestion. They didnt have a "ton" of flavor but you could taste the green onion and the fresh garlic. I was happy he suggested it. The General tso.... Not sure if thats what I was sent home with. It looked like orange chicken but tasted more like if Gen Tso and Orange chicken had a baby. It was good. Lots of red pepper so it had that lasting burn on the tongue that many places don't achieve. I was happy. Would I get it again? Yes, for ten bucks you get a lot of food that has a good taste. The soup container is simply huge. However, I wouldnt make a special trip to Worthington to get this.

New owners. Different menu. Still delicious. Tried the dry pot with fish, lotus root with peanuts and smokey pork fried rice. Best fried rice I've had in a looong time

This is the kinda place where the food speaks for itself, because the restaurant isnt doing much speaking.The place is extremely unassuming, not decorated much, not the cleanest. The vibes are the opposite of immaculate, but that's okay. I've been to enough small asian restaurants to know it doesn't truly matter.Whatever misgivings i might've had about this place disappeared immediately when I had a bite of the beef in my beef noodle soup. I opted to order off the non-english menu, thanks to Google translate. That beef was so flavorful, so tender, i felt myself ascend. They weren't afraid to give me the 'less desirable' pieces of meat that a standard american wouldn't eat, but I loved. Cant tell if its because i ordered off the non-english menu or if its just me being Asian. Noodles were chewy and VERY plentiful. I got non-spicy but took a little bit of chili oil since I'm a weenie.My partner went with the Dan Dan noodles, which were delicious. Very flavorful, probably the most complex Dan Dan noodes I've ever tried (that's a compliment.) Not spicy enough for my partner's taste so they got some chili oil.We spent $24 (including tip) for a monstrous amount of food, so very affordable. Guy taking our order spoke mandarin, english, and spanish, which us just awesome.

Sad to have to update my rating with Lotus Grill being under new ownership. I haven't been here in a few months and was shocked when I walked in today and everything was different and the usual guy manning the counter wasn't there, it was two different guys. We said we were dining in and they told us to pick our table. Then were brought a tablet to order on which was actually pretty nice. While ordering we inquired about what happened with the old owners and were told they had a medical emergency and decided to sell. The new owners also own/run Xi Xia in Kenny Center which I absolutely love. Unfortunately that didn't carry over to my meal at the "new" Lotus Grill. My usual order was always the honey chicken and it was like $9 and the perfect portion for one person. Well sadly the meals are now "entree" size, aka to be shared which isn't ideal. I tried the sesame chicken since they don't have honey chicken anymore and was really disappointed. The chicken is large pieces which look promising but a lot of it is batter. The sauce was fine I guess but nothing to write home about. The rice was almost dry and very meh. The price was $14 for this meal so definitely a sizable increase. I understand the portion is bigger but we loved going here because we could each get our own thing and not have to share. I think if the new owners want this place to last they need to revisit their business model because being right by a movie theater people don't want to be taking leftovers to go. Not sure I'll stop back in sadly which is a huge bummer as this has been a favorite place of mine for over 10 years.

In Columbus for work on a random Thursday, a friend and I braved the traffic in the area in order to meet up for dinner at Lotus Grill. Tucked in to a small strip mall, the restaurant was easy to find with good parking. After perusing the large menu board -which was amusingly updated with what looked like whiteout in order to 'remove' old menu items and give new prices to the remaining dishes- we ordered directly at the counter: General Tso's chicken for my friend, cashew shrimp and a bowl of hot & sour soup for me, an order of potstickers to share, and two bottles of tea. After tax but before tip our total was $33.17, which felt very reasonable.The interior of the eatery was very spartan, with virtually no decorations other than live, potted plants located at various corners, counters, and windowsills. My friend and I picked a table midway down the hallway, and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly the food was wordlessly delivered to our table. I had to go back up to the counter and ask -in Mandarin- for chopsticks; the employee blinked, looked at me funny, and said in English "your Chinese is good" as he passed them over. My friend and I both agreed that the food was good, but nothing spectacular. My cashew shrimp was good but not great, with my friend saying the same thing about her General Tso's chicken. The hot & sour soup had a very good flavour, while the potstickers were disappointingly average. We never saw another staff member in the dining area after our meals were delivered to the table, so when we were finished eating, I had to go back up to the order counter again and ask -in Mandarin- a bemused employee for a to-go box. PROS: good food, nice portion sizes, speedy, reasonably pricedCONS: the restaurant really did not have any table service or ambianceOverall we found Lotus Grill to be Good, and would return.

Lotus Grill is an informal place where you order, find a seat and staff brings your food. I ordered Dan Dan Noodles, somewhat spicy. It arrived not spicy at all but they did bring me some hot sauce so that helped a lot. It has nice fresh vegetables in addition to the noddles and chicken. My friend ordered an egg roll and Beef Broccoli. She said the egg roll was good but the beef was tough. The wait-person came to ask us if we needed containers but he was on the phone so it was hard to say yes, we would like two of them. He did apologize later for being on the phone but that was off-putting.However, the most off-putting thing of all was the smell. We were about 20-30 feet from the restrooms and our area smelled like sewer gas. I didn't notice it at first and it seemed to vary (maybe with the air currents or heat going on?) but eventually I figured it out. Eew.

The good: prices. For the amount of food you get, you absolutely cannot beat the value. The dude at the counter. He was very cool, knew people by name, great customer service. Serving sweet and sour chicken with pineapple, and assorted veggies. The bad: the food was just decent. White rice left something to be desired as it tasted old. The veggie lo mein was bland, so was the sweet and sour sauce. The ugly: they served my food in plastic bag in which the bottom was covered in soy sauce from an opened packet so the bottom of the container was soaked, had to eat it out of the bag. I'm visiting Columbus and staying at a hotel so I didn't have silverware and wasn't given any utensils with my takeout. Guess how I ate my lo mein...Overall, value was great, food was decent, presentation was bad. Minimal improvements could make this place really special.

Went to a conference and stopped in for lunch. Food was okay. Very sketchy service. The dude took our order and then left. We couldn't eat it all and the man in the back ignored us as he was on his phone until I had to ask for to go boxes. The place had no ambiance. I guess it's a pick up only deal.

So sad to see the "new" menu. The prices doubled and they did away with my favorite hot pepper chicken. I think the owners may have changed.

Food was horrible!!! The side of fried rice looked burned and smelled bad!!! Kung Pao chicken with breaded chicken was not good either!!! Way overpriced as well!!!